Dress finisher



June 13, 1950 Original Filed July 15, 1946 J. E. FITPOLD DRESS FINISHER 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR June 13, 1950 J. E. FITPOLD 2,511,796

DRESS FINISHER Original Filed July 13, 1946 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 (SUM/EDITOR l0 Joseph E iii bola! J. E. FITPOLD DRESS FINISHER June 13, 1950 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Original Filed July 15. 1946 mvzmoe Joseph E. Fit 001d BY /WBWM Patented June 13, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE DRESS FINISHER- Joseph E. Fitpold,0hicago, 111., assignor to United States Hoffman Machinery Corporation, New

York, N. Y.

8 Claims.

This invention relates to apparatus for processing an entire dress or other similar garment, by means of steam and heated air, without the application of pressurefromany ironing or pressing surface. More particularly the invention relates to apparatus comprising a reticulate or mesh metal form, covered by a baggy, somewhat porous fabric envelope, over which a garment may be placed and held in suitable position while steam and/or hot air or other fluid conditioning medium is blown outwardly through the bag and arment.

Garment finishing apparatus of the foregoing type has been proposed heretofore. The present application which is a division of my application filed July 13,1946, Serial Number 683,325, Patent No. 2,443,557, relates especially to improvements in such apparatus, which facilitate the placing of dresses andother garments upon the form.

An object of the invention is to provide improved means for securing andsupporting a perous bag upon a heating. form and also to insure better. and more eificient handling of garments while they are being, placed upon or removed from the form.

Other objects will be in part obvious and in part pointed out hereinafter.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combinations Of elements,

and arrangement of parts as will be exemplified in the structure to be hereinafter described and the scope of the applicationof wliich will be indicated in the following claims.

In the accompanying drawings in which is' Fig. 2 is in part a side elevation and'in part a vertical section on an enlargedscale, taken on line 2 -2'of Fig. 1";

Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail section, taken on line 3--3 of Fig. 2;,and V Fig. 4 is a plan view of Fig. 3. The finishingapparatus shown in the drawings comprises a. base In upon which is mounted a cylindrical housing 12, a blower I4, with its drive motor Ii. An inner shell. 20, centrally located within the housing, receives air from the blower 14 through an air tunnel 22. The shell 20 extends above the walls of the housing 12 and supports a ball-bearing structure 28; an annular sheet steel ring 36 forming the bottom supporting member of a reticulate metal garment form 32.

The annular ring 30 carries at its circumference, a depending beaded ring 3|, about which the bottom of the porous bag 36 is secured by means of a resilient loop of spring wire 38, disposed within the hem 40 of the bag.

A downwardly sloping annular metal cover rests upon the top of the housing l2, and completes the enclosure of the space between the wall of the housing and the inner shell 20.

The body 29 of the garment form 32 is preferably made of flat expanded metal which is brazed or welded at its lower end to the ring 30, and at its top to formed metal neck and shoulder front plate 4| and neck and shoulder back plate 42, see Figs. 2, 3 and 4.

A novel feature of the present garment form isthe device by which the bag 36 is supported thereon. By reference to the drawings, it will be seen that the shoulder and neck plates BI and 42 are shaped to provide a deep recess or notch 43 which separates the front plate 4| from the back plate 42. through neck and shoulder from side to side and is of substantial depth from front to back of the recess. The bottom of the recess is flat metal continuous with the front and back walls of the recess.

A bolt or rivetlike member 44 which passes up through the bottom of the recess 43, as shown,

is welded .or brazed to the metal of the form, as at gand extends upwardly therefrom.

The porous bag is made with a notch 46, similar to the notch 43, which when the bag is placed over the form interfits perfectly with the said notch 43, the bottom of the notched portion of the bag being perforated to receive the upstanding shank of the bolt 44. The latter is internally threaded as at 45, and after the bag has been drawn down over the bolt, a sleeve member 48 having oppositely extending horizontal flanges 49 at its'base is slipped over the bolt, with its said flanges in engagement with the bottom of the bag notch 45. The sleeve member is held in place This notch cuts right down by a stud 50 which threadedly engages the threads 45 of the bolt member. A collar on the stud, engaging the upper end of the sleeve member, holds the whole assembly tightly in position. The said stud extends upwardly above the collar 5| to provide a. pin 52 upon which a special garment hanger 54 may be seated within the notch. The hanger may be retained in place in any suitable manner, as by the cooperation of a spring controlled latch 55 with an annular groove 56 in the pin portion of the stud.

The hanger 54 constitutes a permanent although removable part of the apparatus. The notch has a greater dimension from front to back than has the garment hanger in the same direction, and the bolt 44 and stud are forwardly offset from the shoulder center line of the respective notches, whereby a. space 51 is left to the rear of the hanger when in place in the garment notch. This space is provided to permit the temporary disposal therein of the ordinary wire hanger, as 58, commonly used in handling and supporting garments of various sorts during intervals between treating operations in the laundry or dry cleaning plant. On such a hanger dresses awaiting finishing would be carried when needed from any supporting rack to the dress form. As the dress is placed upon the permanent hanger of the form the wire hanger is simply dropped, to rest in the notch until the dress is ready for removal, when by grasping the wire hanger by its hook the dress may be quickly and easily removed from the form without mussing and again hung upon a suitable storage rack, or the like.

The bag 36 is flexible and made of fabric permeable to a fluid medium such as air and/or steam, but woven with sufficient tightness to provide suflicient resistance to the passage of the fluid to effect distension thereof and the maintenance of a certain ressure therein. The important function of the bag is to support and distend the garment under treatment to its normal size, and to provide uniform distribution of steam and/or air to all portions of the garment being treated.

In operation, a dress or other garment, with or without its wire hanger, is placed on the form, over the deflated bag. As the dress form and its regular integral hanger take up the support of the garment, the wire hanger may be dropped to lie loosely within the notch at the neck of the bag and form.

From the foregoing it will be seen that this invention i one well adapted to provide means whereby to attain the objects hereinbefore set forth, and accomplish other more or less obvious advantageous results.

As many possible embodiments may be made of the above invention without departing from the scope thereof, it is understood that all matter set forth or shown in the accompanying drawings is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

I claim:

1. In apparatus of the character described, in combination, a garment form having shaped neck and shoulder portions, means providing a rectilinear reentrant recess separating the back from the front of said portions, an upstanding peg member rigidly mounted at the bottom of said recess centrally with respect to the sides of said form, a sleeve loosely fitted upon said peg member having laterally extending bottom flanges positioned to serve as a clamp within said recess. and means cooperatively associated with said peg member to hold said sleeve in clamping position.

2. In apparatus of the character described, in combination, a garment form having shaped neck and shoulder portions, means providing a reentrant recess separating the back from the front of said portions, an upstanding peg member rigidly mounted at the bottom of said recess centrally with respect to the sides of said form, a sleeve loosely fitted upon said peg member having laterally extending bottom flanges positioned to serve as a clamp within said recess, and means threadedly engaging said peg member to hold said sleeve in clamping position.

3. In apparatus of the character described, in combination, a garment form having shaped neck and shoulder portions, means providing a reentrant recess separating the back from the front of said portions, an upstanding peg member rigidly mounted at the bottom of said recess centrally with respect to the sides of said form, a sleeve loosely fitted upon said peg member having bottom flanges positioned to serve as a clamp within said recess, and a covering for said form having a recessed neck and shoulder portion perforated to receive said peg and adapted to be held down in said form recess by said clamping means.

4. In apparatus of the character described, in combination, a garment form having shaped neck and shoulder portions, means providing a reentrant recess separating the back from the front of said portions, an upstanding peg member rigidly mounted at the bottom of said recess centrally with respect to the sides of said form, a. sleeve loosely fitted upon said peg member having bottom flanges positioned to serv as a clamp within said recess, holding means threadedl engaging said peg member to hold said sleeve in clamping position, and a covering for said form having a recessed neck and shoulder portion perforated to receive said peg and adapted to be held down in said form recess by said clamping means.

5. In apparatus of the character described, in combination, a garment form having shaped neck and shoulder portions, means providing a reentrant notch separating the back from the front of said portions, an upstanding peg member rigidly mounted at the bottom of said notch centrally with respect to th sides of said form, a sleeve loosely fitted upon said peg member having laterally extending bottom flanges positioned to serve as a clamp within said notch, holding means threadedly engaging said peg member to hold said sleeve in clamping position and comprising an upstanding pin, and a garment hanger cooperatively associated with said pin for removable support within said notch by said holding means.

6. In apparatus for finishing garments, in combination, a perforate garment form having a reentrant portion extending through the neck and shoulder parts of said form from side to side thereof, and a flexible porous covering for said form having a recessed neck portion corresponding with said reentrant portion adapted to interflt therewith when the covering is placed upon said form.

7. In apparatus for finishing garments, in combination, a perforate garment form having a reentrant portion extending through the neck and shoulder parts of said form from side to side thereof, a flexible porous covering for said form having a recessed neck portion corresponding with said reentrant portion adapted to interfit therewith when the covering is placed upon said form, and means operabl within said reentrant portion of said form to clamp said covering securely to said form.

8. In apparatus for finishing garments, in combination, a perforate garment form having a reentrant portion extending through the neck and shoulder parts of said form from side to side thereof, a flexible porous covering for said form having a recessed neck portion corresponding with said reentrant portion adapted to interfit therewith when the covering is placed upon said form, means operable within said reentrant portion of said form to clamp said covering securely to said form, and garment supporting means removably supported by said clamping means.

JOSEPH E. FITPOLD.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in th file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 10 Number Name Date 1,194,555 Selubsky Aug. 15, 1916 2,132,034 La Rue Oct. 4, 1938 2,158,895 Brown May 16, 1939 2,443,557 Fitpold June 15, 1948 

